Friday Roundup

News
USAToday picks up hint the Landis decision will come by the end of September, gives Bonnie D a blessing for getting hitched, and us a plug, which is close to a trifecta.

VeloNews rewrites Bonnie D's piece about the memo.

The DNR Online from Harrisonburg,VA, blurbs Floyd Landis' participation in the SM100 on Sunday. In the meantime Floyd will hold an autograph session today at 7 p.m. at the Shenandoah Bicycle Company in downtown Harrisonburg.

The CyclingNews posts a feature on Oscar Pereiro in which he comments on the Landis hearing announcement and how it affects him:

It is yet to be decided whether Floyd Landis will forfeit his yellow jersey from last years Tour to his ex team-mate as the jury is still out, but Pereiro prefers to put aside his feelings of the controversy of the Landis doping scandal and the ongoing legal battle that may see his name appear as the winner of the 2006 Tour in the record books. In fact he really doesn't want to hear about last year's edition of the Grande Boucle anymore. Whether or not he's going to be the winner at the end of Floyd Landis' procedures process doesn't bother him now. "That is the past," he said. "I prefer to focus on the present. I don't pay attention anymore to when the Landis case will be closed. I only think of my career now."

The CyclingNews opens its' Friday mailbag which finds one comment on the Landis legal team and whether or not they are overpriced, and many letters on the Greg LeMond comments from Monday's Denver Post interview. Though most of the respondents respect LeMond's past accomplishments, they at the same time feel disappointment in his actions of late. From one letter by Jacob Motola comes this:

What did you get for your soul Greg? Even if you can say anything you want, does not mean you should and certainly does not mean you should not be held accountable for your accusations. As a former fan of yours I can only say that you do yourself a great disservice and a disservice to our sport by continuing to try to elevate yourself at the expense of others.

In an update the CyclingNews posts the Landis arb announcement story.

The BBC reports Ian Thorpe is off the hook, the Australian ADA having determined his results were naturally occurring.

ASADA press release on the Thorpe decision.


The California Association of Criminologists Newsletter looks at the Landis case (on page 11), and considers the question,

“How would LNDD fare if they were undergoing an ASCLD Lab inspection and the Landis case file was one of those pulled out for inspection?”

Author Bob Blackledge has used GC/MS for 20 years in a forensic laboratory, and he's not impressed by what he sees. The description running from the bottom of the first column on page 15 is a lucid explanation of the IRMS procedure, and identification issues. Concluding paragraphs:

In reviewing LNDD’s approach to urine sample drug analysis in the Landis case, I can’t help but recall the comments of two of my esteemed fellow CAC members. Ron Nichols published an article in Science & Justice and the article’s title says it all: “Drug proficiency test false positives: a lack of critical thought.” Peter de Forest states: “Real cases demand more than unthinkingly applying ‘tests’ on ‘items’ of evidence.”

In the Landis case the technicians at LNDD unthinkingly mapplied the lab’s testing protocol to his urine sample. Had they instead used critical thinking, they would have realized that not only was the sample too degraded, the GC baseline far too noisy, and peak size and separation unacceptable to provide a reliable T/E ratio, they would have realized that these same problems could only exacerbate any attempt at IRMS.

Were LNDD’s data presented at an actual criminal trial before a jury in the adversarial U.S. court system, I wager the trial would never even reach the stage of closing arguments. At the conclusion of the prosecution’s case the judge would opine that the government had not produced a prima facie case and would render a directed verdict of not guilty!

(tip from an emailer)

Blogs
Sports Forward notes the ESPN story by Bonnie D. Ford on the possible timing of the Landis arbitration announcement at the end of September.

Rant discusses the possibility of the decision being anywhere from Sep 12 to Sep 22. We noted Sep 26 as the outlier because it's 10 business days after the 12th. He wonders if the timing is good or bad news for Team Landis.

Madison Square Garden blog plugs Rant's coverage.

Cycling under the Influence thinks The End is Near, for the case anyway. He believes neither USADA proved its case, nor Landis' claims he never, ever took a PED.

BikeWorld ticks the Floyd Watch counter to 71 days, and hopes it doesn't hit 91. Cycling Fans Anonymous also picks up the end-of-september story, with no comment, as does Basic B.

Gwadzilla writes about the upcoming SM100 and knows that you'll never know how you will feel on any given day at any race until you are there, and all the looking back in the world won't really help much. He hopes for good competition between Floyd Landis, and Chris Eatough.

Foto by Wes also looks forward to the SM100 and Floyd Landis' appearance there. He is proud to say that not only is he a bike geek, but also a beer geek.

CFA read Bonnie D Ford's ESPN piece about the anticipated late September announcement of the arb panel findings in the Landis case.

Fast to Travel runs Pommi's anniversary announcement auf Deutsch; pehaps he can tell us about the quality of the translation.

Biking Bis knew that he forgot something this summer, Floyd Landis. He thinks that since the nine day hearings in May were public perhaps any finishing testimony given the panel by Dr. Francesco Botre this September should be public and above board as well.

IfJeff hears that Floyd Landis was possibly sipping a few brews with the locals in Harrisonburg the other night, and that he may have participated in the "six pack" mb race today.

The Amish and Us appreciates the vignettes Floyd Landis provides in "Positivley False" about growing up a Mennonite in Lancaster, CO PA.

Emmy at HBurgNews Blog ran into Landis at the Shenandoah Bicycle Company tonight, and got a picture with her boys.

Ordinary Bo read the Bonnie Ford story from ESPN.com and thinks that the length of time the arb panel has taken in the Landis case may just be due to the amount of evidence they had to sift through. In any case, no matter how they rule Bo feels that the incompetence of the LNDD needs exposure, and that if Floyd wins WADA should pay his legal costs.

Tim's Thotful Spot looks at the impending decision, and is still guardedly hopeful.

re: Cycling is still pessimistic, and earlier read The Outcast, described as "depressing". Lemond takes a beating.


PND Swim say Landis has taught us something about facing ADVERSITY.

Oh the places you'll go isn't holding his breathe (sic), and passes on a rumor that Bruyneel may go to Astana!

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Thursday Roundup

News
ESPN/Bonnie D(eSimone) Ford says the decision is likely "before the end of September", according to a memo by Brunet that fell into her hands yesterday. Their last meeting with Botre is set for Sep 12, which might start the 10 day clock, giving us Sep 22 or Sep 26 as likely dates. It appears TBV's rationalization for bad performance on the Oct 7 Diablo Challenge is set.

CyclingNews previews the Shenandoah Mountain 100, and introduces us to contenders and favorites that aren't named Landis. Foremost is Chris Eatough ('e tough?), who has already clinched the National Ultra-Endurance title, along with Harlan Price, Gerry Pflug.

(We won't be providing the detail we did with Leadville, sorry.)

Elsewhere, The CyclingNews, with no direct Landis content, notes that Alejandro Valverde has been banned from the Worlds and that in addition the UCI is starting proceedings against him for his alleged involvement in OP. In other UCI news the rift between the UCI and WADA grows wider with WADA choosing not to participate in The Worlds this year because it was not officially invited to do so by the UCI. Pat McQuaid commented:

"It is not just because of the relationship with UCI, but also for financial reasons as well," he said, shortly after the finish of the Tour of Ireland in Dublin. "I don't know exactly what the reason is. But I don't think it will have any effect on the world championships. We have a steering committee which is working: we have a system in place with that steering committee to do a major number of out of competition controls by the UCI and with the national anti-doping agencies prior to the world championships."

He said that a major measure taken prior to the Tour de France would once again be used for the Worlds. "We have written to all the federations that will be taking part in the world championships, telling them that we want every rider who will be taking part in the championships to sign a pledge, similar to the one before the Tour. It will actually have to be slightly different for the Under 23 riders and the women, but it will be similar to the one we did for the ProTour teams before the Tour de France.

The VeloNews also covers the turf war between WADA and The UCI.

The Boulder Reports says that for the last Goddamn time the answer should be NO to legalized use of PEDs -- and we agree with the reasoning.

The Onion reports on the finish of the non-dopers at the Tour de France, which happened today, taking two months.

Blogs
Rant thinks the cases of Rasmussen and Valverde are revealing some political machinations that are not flattering. We are shocked, shocked to hear there might be more to anti-doping enforcement than the pursuit of fair play.

Paisley had a strange dream the other night about Floyd Landis appearing in his underwear in a gourmet grocery store. Floyd argued briefly about the propriety of his dress and then left. Floyd shopping for groceries? Now that's strange.

James Kirby discusses doping in cycling and the dubious relationship between cycling and impotence. Viagra may actually be of benefit in high altitude racing because it dialates blod vessels. So it may need to become a banned substance. Maybe all of the "Male Performance Enhancement" spam is about cycling?

Shawn Adams Coaching was injured recently in a MB race and broke his shoulder. He will have to miss racing against Floyd Landis this weekend at the SM100, but will be rested for his cyclo-cross Nationals.

Chipotle-Titus MTB team blog runs down their Leadville, with two top-10 finishers in Mike Hogan and Thomas Dooley. Lots of pix.

In the gutter tries to compare his looks to a very old picture of Landis

CrystalZenMud steps back and looks at some politics in cycling anti-doping efforts.

PJ wonders if the arbs in the Landis case have entered the witness protection program. Let me just say that if PJ had ever run into Campbell, he'd know how unlikely it is for one arbiter to hide, anywhere, from anything.

Diablo Scott has a blog devoted to his obsession with Climbing Mt. Diablo. What kind of nut would do a single topic cycling blog? Crazy. He does offer these informative graphics (click for bigger):

The Diablo Challenge is run on the Green/Blue route.

Sierra Rd was the gut-buster on early stages in the 2006 and 2007 Tours of California. This compares it to the second half of the Diablo climb.

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Wednesday Roundup

News
Still no word about Mayo's B sample results. Racejunkie pointedly notes that if it's negative, delay affects his ability to compete in the upcoming Vuelta.

The CyclingNews has Pat McQuaid's complete response to Greg LeMond's anti UCI remarks given in an interview LeMond did late last week.

We missed this earlier, but CyclingNews on Aug 13 carried a report about the case of Marco Fertonani, an LNDD testosterone positive. CN says that CONI, the first body involved, reccomended a 2 year sanction, after the defense made the following claims:

Fertonani's lawyer presented a report back in July to CONI which detailed the mistakes made by the Châtenay-Malabry lab, the same laboratory responsible for testing Floyd Landis' 2006 Tour de France samples which came up positive for testosterone. This week the 31 year-old released a statement giving more detail about the results of his test, which he insists do not add up to a positive. The press release states that the testosterone:epitestosterone ratio was below the 4:1 limit at 3.1:1, that all metabolites in the IRMS analysis had normal absolute values, that his total amount of testosterone was well below the limit of 200 ng/ml at 8.7.

If we can get a copy of the statement and the lab values, we'll post them. We can't make heads of tails of "all metabolites in the IRMS analysis had normal absolute values", since the IRMS compares delta, not absolute values. The choice of "absolute values" might be a dodge in the defense argument, and we'd need to see what they were, and what the deltas were, to start making an informed judgement.

Blogs
Rant deconstructs what was said in the latest LeMond interview, and detects some internal inconsistencies and unsupported speculation, and unprovable assertion along with some grains of truth. He thinks GL is in way over his head when it comes to dispatching psychological advice.

Cycle Jabber reruns the Colbert Report commentary on Floyd Landis from last summer, and wonders if we will ever get the results from the Landis hearing arbitration panel.

Racejunkie provides us with yet more of his understated opinions with some of them on the Greg LeMond interview from Monday, and thanks for the plug:

Greg claiming yet again that he valiantly tried to save Floyd from gross self-destruction, saying not only that he lovingly advised the deluded boy that your "lie" is "always there, and it works on you and it works on you," but that he can't see how Landis could've made a "morally conscious" decision to ask other people to give him money to defend himself. Jeez, Greg, can't you just wait for USADA to fry him?

Jason at MySpace plans on sweeping Floyd Landis off the Shenandoah Mountain 100 Sunday. Good luck.

CrystalZENmud wonders if the Landis arbitration panel is in violation of WADA article 8 which states that decisions shall be rendered in a timely fashion. Zen also wonders if any undue influences have been brought to bear that have caused the announcement to take so long:

To know this, we would have to know whether the Arbitrators have been interfered with by USADA pressures, or whether outside influences, from perhaps the French Ministry of Youth and Sport (which oversees the former LNDD, the French Anti-doping Laboratory), or WADA itself, have conducted unlawful ex parte sessions?

Pommi "alerts" us that the decision in the Landis vs (the former) USADA hearings are imminent, in this the 14th anniversary of the hearings at the former Pepperdine University:

Monday, May 23, 2021

Murrieta, California (Reuters) - Today marks the 14th anniversary of the ending of the Floyd Landis / USADA hearing at the former site of Pepperdine University; Malibu has since been washed into the Pacific Ocean after the sea level rose more than 4 feet over the past decade. To date, the world and Floyd Landis, 45, are still waiting for the decision of the arbitration panel on Landis' fate and whether he can be finally declared or dethroned the Tour de France Champion of 2006. According to inside sources at the WADC (World Anti-Doping Conglomerate), founded in 2012 from the remnants of WADA and USADA, the decision is expected any day now since Richard McLaren will retire in a week from today.

This is one of the funniest blog entries of the summer, and was much needed. Let's hope it is NOT prophetic.


Dugard called Floyd Landis' cell phone yesterday and thought Floyd's message was less terse. It probably changed when he got his iPhone.

Cycling Under the Influence also picks up the old Ziegler article about hematocrit; we refer you to yesterday's discussion of Cycling Fans Anonymous discovery of the same non-story.

w this, we would have to know whether the Arbitrators have been

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Tuesday Roundup

News
The Boulder Report has all kinds of stuff from the weekend in the wide world of cycling ranging from official types keeping mum on Mary Peter's remarks about bicycles NOT being transportation to the LeMond interview in the Denver Post which Joe Lindsey writes may be nuts OR the truth we don't want to hear.

Pez Cycling News thinks that Landis arb panel may have been kidnapped or something:

Do they get up everyday and talk about Floyd Landis and debate about what will become of him, or do they go about some other day job and think about his ruling before they go to bed?

ESPN Page 2 writes about athletes making stupid choices and throws Floyd Landis in as one of many examples of athletes who have made them.

Blogs
Bryan's Racing Blog threw down fewer calories and rode more including the Reston Century for good measure. He remembers the Landis quote," if you want to go faster, peddle harder", truer words and all that.

TruSports writes about types of sports scandals after thinking about the Michael Vick story and relates them to Buffalo wings and what you might think about when ordering them heat wise. Floyd Landis, along with Vick and Kobe Bryant, is in the hottest group dubbed "Code Atomic" Transcendentally Scandalous:

The Ebola virus of scandals latches itself onto every aspect of our society, provokes a response from everyone and things can get ugly. These usually stem from a single event which branches into a full blown disaster and it's impact extends beyond ESPN and into other non-traditional sports networks. The beauty of these scandals is that they don't even have to involve a high profile athlete as long as it threatens to hang a black cloud over the the landscape of an entire sport.
Characteristics of these sports scandals include a bevy of live press conferences which involve a lot of reveal nothing we didn' t already know except giving us another grasp of the gravity of the controversy at hand. They usually cause normally rational people to become irrational, overreact and to side with either the radicalists or the pacifists...

Ifjeff says he might ride the Shenandoah Mountain 100 this coming weekend and if he does he'll heckle Floyd Landis on the course because there's far too much Landis johnson stroking going on to suit his fancy. Thanks for sharing that image, but we'll pass.

Recovox News reprints Floyd Landis' remarks after the Leadville 100, and posts yet another picture of the now famous Landis bloody raspberry, sounds like the name of a new cocktail.

Snackfight picks this from The Outcast:

Everybody wants me to look them in the eye and say I didn't do it. I'm willing to do that, but really, what does that do? Is that logical to think you can tell by looking into my eyes? I don't think so. The only way that people would ever believe me is to admit it and say that I did it. That's it. Nothing else is ever going to be indisputable.

Cycling Fans Anonymous just notices the Ziegler article from June that tried to make something of Landis' hematocrit measurments. We have been told repeatedly that the portable devices are not accurate, and it's very misleading to look at raw numbers. The only HCT values of real accuracy are those done by real labs as part of a CBC blood draw, and that isn't what the reported values represent.

For example, the very first Google we did on "portable hematocrit instrument accuracy" returned an NIH report that says, "Imprecision ranged from 3.3% to 5.3% for StatPal"

Then, in Clinical Diabetes Mellitus : A Problem-oriented Approach
we read:

In an accuracy evaluation of bedside glucose monitoring [a study] gathered 4517 quality-control results, and found that approximately 58^ of the bedside results were within 10% and 78% were within 15% of the corresponding clinical laboratory result.

three whole-blood meters used to test samples with a wide range of hematocrit and glucose values produced reading that exceeded the 15% maximum acceptable error for 35, 37 and 53% of the samples. Only about 25% of the measurements of these instruments fell within 5% of the measurement obtained by the designated comparison method, and each instrument exhibited a different bias with hematocrit."

Evidently this level of research is beyond the capabilities of those who want to slime Landis at every opportunity. We won't go into the large variances based on hydration, or sitting/standing when drawn.


We Love Bikes has revised the post about 67 (now 69?) days and counting, giving a little slack based on how long it really takes the US Supremes to reach decisions, than tightening it back up because it's not exactly constitutional law.

Sara Best feels sorry for LeMond, showing himself to be an unhappy, bitter man. She thinks

[W]e can all agree that if the issue of the secret motorcycles isn't addressed soon, the sport is never going to recover.

Then she reposts a snark describing the "Tours de France That Greg LeMond Should Have Won (TDFTLSHW)"

The Admire LeMond website takes a rather different point of view,

So... Greg's very low consideration of the UCI is once again made clear here. Another point that I find interesting, and I've been wondering about that possibility when the cases of blood doping were talked about during last Tour -and particularly the fact that autologuous transfusions were undetectable- : wouldn't it be possible to check for needle marks on riders? Of course the exam can seem borderline too invasive, and there's the possibility of simple vitamin injections... Greg suggests to have a control on those injections too. Why not?

Bwana read the LeMond interveiw yesterday and has some concerns about Greg LeMond's objectivity when it comes to Floyd Landis, due process be damned:

Are LeMond’s comments about doping in pro cycling accurate. Most likely. Nonetheless, LeMond has prejudged Landis-so much for any concern about due process. LeMond has effectively said there were no mistakes in the testing, despite the bulk of evidence at the Landis hearing that showed there was more than reasonable doubt that tests were not conducted properly, despite evidence of chicanery, and despite a wild variety of lab standards used to measure testosterone.
But nooooooooooooooooo, LeMond knows Landis is guilty. So certain, he apparently thinks the only way Landis can be cleared is through a “technicality”. He may not have noticed it, but technicalities crop up in life every day…from contracts to criminal trials. Technicalities are there to protect rights…unless you are 100% certain of something.

And thanks for the plug.

STR knows that Leadville is old news, but still thinks that Floyd Landis was pretty amazing coming in 2d place with an injury.

Bruce Michel Review has watched the TdF for a very long time and is not sure if the sport of cycling can pull out of the quagmire it finds itself in now.

Metro Solo reconnoitered the last 50 miles of the SM100 to see what it was like, and he is excited that Floyd Landis ,among others , will be riding on Sunday. Oh, that last 50 miles is hard by the way and musical intervention helps.

Forums
Rec.bicyles.tech chews The Outcast with some interesting comments. Snips:

The article, I thought, casts Floyd as a helplessly, incurably, almost lametably blunt but straight shooter, which would suggest that he would be incapable of maintaining an outright lie for this long. I think that, overall, it works in his favor in the court of public opinion, but I'm not sure that a reader's consensus would bear that out.

Odd. I thought that the article painted Landis as lost, helpless, and suffering. I was left with the impression that he would say anything the came into his head. More to the point, I thought he sounded a bit dumb - which fit just fine with notion that he would do drugs and get caught.

It sounds like our impression of Landis after reading the article is almost completely shared, except for a final bit of interpretation.

Does Landis have zero brain-to-mouth editing power? Are these attacks as calculated as when racing? Are they displaced self-loathing and guilt? Are they righteous rage? Smokescreen?

I guess this is why people should pay shrinks instead of trust newsgroups, and why, as Landis accurately states, no matter what the truth is his image will be forever dubious for as long as he denies doping.

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Monday Roundup

News
The Denver Post interviews Greg LeMond who has more to say about the current state of pro cycling than he did Saturday in his Daily Camera interview. He feels cycling is getting what it deserves and in this interview with John Henderson he specifically talks about the Landis hearings, and his conversation with Floyd Landis:

As in his testimony, LeMond said Friday that he warned Landis before the trial "I told him, 'Floyd, you may think you can get away and hide your lie, but it's always there and it works on you and it works on you,"' LeMond said. "'And in 15-20 years it manifests itself. It's proven throughout psychotherapy and (with) psychologists and psychiatrists that trauma or lying or not being true to yourself has a dramatic effect on self- destructiveness."'

LeMond says he is misunderstood and that he is not against Landis at all, but is against the PR campaign to get people to believe in his innocence, LeMond goes further to say however:

"Everybody's entitled to justice," LeMond said. "Everybody's entitled to defend themselves. But the reality is to go out into the public, like the Floyd Fairness Fund, and be asking people who are so gullible and who really don't know what's going on? I don't know how, in a morally conscious way, that he's able to do that

About doping in cycling, LeMond claims everybody's doing it:

"I know what's going on in the sport, and it's despicable," he said. "It's criminal, actually. Organized blood doping. Secret motorcycles. ... Hiding places. Doing human growth hormone, testosterone, cortisone, insulin growth factor, EPO."...and..."It's because everybody's doing it," LeMond said. "They get caught because of a mistake. There are people getting away. The worst ones that are getting away I don't even want to mention

In the earlier interview from this past weekend LeMond had criticized Pat McQuaid and the UCI, McQuaid fires back:

UCI president Pat McQuaid, reached in Dublin, Ireland, on Saturday, angrily answered: "I completely disagree and completely dispute what Greg LeMond says. Greg LeMond himself is not above suspicion. The UCI is doing a good job in the fight against doping. If he talks about accusations of corruption, let him prove it."

LeMond thinks that if Floyd Landis "gets off on a technicality" it would be a big blow to the anti-doping movement, and LeMond's only comment on what may be inadequacies in the system itself is that he believes in the LNDD.


The CyclingNews reports that Andrey Kashechkin will defend himself against out of competition doping violations by claiming the UCI's incompetence:

Kashechkin of Team Astana is fighting against the UCI's regulation of conducting blood and urine samples, and his lawyer added that those "cannot be carried unless one has a mandate from the law. A private organisation like the UCI cannot assume the right to monitor people."

Seems like the wrong argument to make. He got a license with conditions that give the UCI that right (and responsibility). If he wants to complain about how they carry out that mandate, he might have more ground under his feet.


Men's Health website seems to have reposted an old article dating from the 2006 Tour of Georgia, where Landis gives some tips to the writer: Beginning cyclists spin too slowly, for the most part, and standing while climbing isn't always a great idea.


Velonews letters wonder about the delay in publishing a decision in the case, and why no one questions labs when results are negative.

Palatka Daily News talks about restoring Cycling's credibility, and time might be the answer. Lots of time.

Blogs
An emailer points us at an interesting 5-part series over at Slowtwitch about PED use and enforcement in age-group athletes. What is fair, and what is not? In Part 2, Mark Sisson argues no endurance training is really "healthy" past certain limits. Arnie Baker, in part 3, agrees that what makes one perform best may not make one healthy. He further observes perhaps 20 older members of his cycling club take testosterone supplements for medical reasons, and doesn't know if it's possible to get a TUE for it should they wish to compete in an event where it would be banned. Part 4 considers the general ethics of supplementation, and wonders what business anybody has to tell informed adults they shouldn't do something, for their own good-- like, say, riding down a mountain at 60 mph. And Part 5 wonders about the litigation when some rich triathlete gets popped on a doping charge that affects his professional reputation. No answers, but lots of intriguing discussion.

UltraRob posts another set of pics from the recently contested Leadville 100 with another graphic picture of the "Landis Raspberry". Remember that cycling fandom is about watching other people suffer.

Rant finds himself agreeing in part with Greg LeMond's opinions expressed on Saturday in the Daily Camera on cycling and its current state of affairs -- but not completely.

Jason Macemore notes that Floyd Landis is riding in the Shenandoah Mountain 100.

Tear-it-down rips "Ultimate Frisbee", and puts together a hypothetical team that would kick butt -- including Barry Bonds, Pete Rose, Floyd Landis, Ben Johnson, Tonya Harding, others ... and G.W. Bush.

BikeWorld says we've had 67 working days, and no decision, and thinks the US Supreme Court usually acts more quickly. This doesn't seem correct to us -- a perusal of recent decisions shows 8 published between June 25 and June 28 2007, and they were argued on 18-Apr, 26-Mar, 4-Dec-2006, 17-Apr, 28-Feb, 19-Mar, 25-Apr, and 19-Mar. The one from December is a really long time, and the ones from February and March weren't exactly quick either. I guess "usually" could apply to the 3 from April, but it still seems like an argument from hyperbole.

In Brown v. Board of Education, perhaps the most significant decision of the post-war period, the Court invited the parties back to re-argue the case. We probably won't see that happen here, even though Landis/USADA may be the Brown v. BoE of the anti-doping system.

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Sunday Roundup

News
The CyclingNews summarizes the LeMond story from Colorado, and also mentions that Iban Mayo's "B" sample results have been delayed until tomorrow:

... the laboratory "finished its work at noon". The UCI is the only authority which can communicate the results, so Mayo, who is suspended from riding, will have to wait three more days. The cyclists from Igorre (Bizkaia) denies having doped. "It's impossible" he said various times to Matxín when he was asked about the subject.

Will the UCI make a public announcement, or will the lab leak it to a local newspaper?


Meet The Press with Tim Russert featured an interview with Lance Armstrong this AM which was about the cancer forum for Presidential candidates Armstrong is hosting Monday and Tuesday in Iowa. Russert taped a longer interview with LA which promises to include comments about the future of cycling that will be accessible by clicking on the link for "Take Two" on the right hand side of the MTP homepage.


Blogs
Rant wants the arbitration panel in the Landis case to take all the time they need IF they are deliberating the many complicated points of the case in a thoughtful manner. The timing of the pending announcement could determine how the arb panel wants the public to perceive its' decision. Waiting is the hardest part.


Let the Stars Lead My Way lists a bunch of people who would make appropriate essay subjects, and Floyd Landis is one of them. Of course so is Pope John Paul the II and Slobodan Milosevic so we suppose Floyd slots somewhere in between those two.

Gorilla on a bike doesn't think he likes Landis coming to the SM100, for fear it will disrupt the folksy feel of the event.

Rants and Revelations points to the Environmental Chemistry article about the wait for a decision.

CyclingBeat goes over a bunch of cycling news as reported by blogs, including Rant, but not us.

Dan Frayer skipped an event this weekend to save his legs for his mano-a-mano with Landis at the SM100.

We got passed today on Diablo by a Leadville jersey wearer on a mountain bike. We asked how he did, and he said "eleven and a half", to which we replied, "way to go" as he rode into the distance. It was an ugly ride for us.

CyclingUnderTheInfluence needs some recovery help. If he had Landis' phone number, he says he'd ask for a sack patch. Too bad USADA's theory was testosterone cream on the chest, and he might have better luck calling Joe Papp.

The Jellomen's scandal continues to play out. The disputed winner is trying get his story out, but not yet with success:

Two summer charity rides to support the Dave Defense Fund were disappointing, raising only $1.52 and a used copy of Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Plans for a national tour were canceled after protesters outnumbered sympathizers at the initial event at the Coal Valley Rotary. Floyd Landis's fundraising efforts appear to have emptied the pockets of potential supporters. Hill is planning a book about his experiences, tentatively entitled Negatively Positive: The Dave Hill Story.

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Saturday Roundup

News
The Daily Camera interviews an outspoken Greg LeMond at the "Tour de Cure" and asks him how he feels about cycling in the wake of the scandal ridden Tour de France this year, and what should be done to curb doping in cycling. He has many suggestions on just how to fix things, among them the civil criminalization of doping offenses:

"I was asked what I thought could be done, and the first thing I said was to divorce yourself from the (International Cycling Union)," LeMond said. "They're in a war in a fight over TV rights. The UCI has been negligent in the sense that they've known what's been going on in cycling. But they have done a much better job under (UCI head) Pat McQuaid, no doubt." Also "There would be the ability to plea-bargain prison sentences, so when riders get busted they can rat out the system and come back to racing in much heavier testing," he said. "It needs to be criminalized because they are trafficking in illegal drugs. They are prescription drugs, but they are being illegally distributed throughout the peloton. You make sure it's very transparent, and then that increases the credibility of the sport."

He also comments on Taylor Phinney son of Davis Phinney, and one of the most talented young riders in America:

"He could be one of our most talented riders coming up. At first I thought, 'Oh, I'm so happy for him,'" said LeMond, who won the Coors Classic in 1981 and 1985 . "And then I thought, 'Oh, I'm so sad for him.' Because I don't know if I was the parent, and my son would have won the worlds, that I would allow him to pursue it on the professional level. I am optimistic that there is a change and it's shifting, and that maybe Taylor Phinney can have a chance like I did where you don't have to decide to either sell your soul to be part of a sport or having your dignity and be proud of doing it on your own."

LeMond says nothing about Floyd Landis, though he's mentioned in the article.


The VeloNews publishes an interesting anti doping suggestion in a letter from the mailbag by Peter McIntyre:

I propose the creation of "Riders Union" laboratory calibrated samples to be tested alongside the rider samples during events. Neutral samples would be doctored with specific amounts of various banned substances to test the accuracy of the testing labs. Even if the lab identified it as a calibrated sample, they would not know what banned substances and what concentrations it contained. Samples would be created to be perfectly clean, just below the acceptable level of a banned substance or wildly over the level of a banned substance. The lab would then report the findings to the riders-union-certified labs, which would compare them for accuracy against known values

.
Blogs
Environmental Chemistry feels that sports are really messed up when a knowing wink can get certain stick and ball athletes no punishment for using PEDs, when a star quarterback can do the unthinkable with dog fighting, and then cycling gets beat up in the press when all it's doing is airing its' dirty laundry and being up front with the public. Ban Vick for life from the NFL.

Racejunkie evaluates LeMond's prescriptions for fixing the sport, and goes along with the part about ditching the UCI, thinks some of the rest is silly, but likes the smack talking that appears directed at Lance.

Then he talks about the immanent release of Mayo's B sample result,

due to be released by the honest unbiased do-gooders over at UCI this past Friday but now due the day after tomorrow instead. No news is never good news--either he's definitively nailed, and the torch-wielding bastards just wanted Iban to really enjoy his weekend, or else they've gone all Floyd Landis on the poor boy, completely screwed up somewhere again, and are just working out the kinks to fry him anyway.

Who Am I? "expands" his vocabulary in interesting ways, and even though he feels some disappointment about "no book" author events at work, he is happy to have gotten a a free copy of "Positively False".

Pommi posts his registration for the Mount Diablo Challenge and if Floyd Landis shows up AND gives him an hour head start he plans on giving Floyd a hard time.

PND Swimming remembers Floyd Landis, and admires him for his courage and determination despite having a "dead hip"doping scandal or no doping scandal.

CFA is glad to see Floyd Landis getting out and racing next week at the Shenandoah Mountain 100. CFA has a message for USADA as well, make a decision in the Landis case or people will think you're incompetent. That boat may already have left the dock.

Kevin's Thoughts on Life finally finished "Positivley False" and he liked the folksy way in which Floyd Landis' story is told. He met Floyd a few weeks ago on the Columbine in CO and liked him enough to want to have a few beers with him. Kevin is not completely convinced, but wants to see Floyd vindicated for various reasons not the least of which is the sloppiness of the LNDD in the handling of Floyd's samples. As a litigator, he also notes

Floyd laments the fact that unless you have tons of money to afford a top-notch attorney, you are doomed against the USADA. This is where Floyd misses the fact that his microcosmic world of cycling closely mirrors the larger US legal system as a whole. The quality of "justice", unfortunately, is often a factor of ones available resources.

MiddleAgedHip tells the story of how he got his Birmingham Hip, and noticed god-like, presumptive surgeons who didn't know anything about hip resurfacing, and he only knew because of what he read about Landis. The only tricky part: the surgeon he ended up with had only done three so far.

Petrucchio got a "ho ho" out of a line in The Outcast, describing Landis as,

"a charming redneck among a venerable group of sleek, mostly European race ponies."

Various spam blogs are running a curious headline that, "Floyd Landis tested positive for increased Diuretics on the day of his spectacular stage win at the Tour de France last year." Whatever that means.

Matt DiCanio pops up again, this time as "The International Brigade of Anti-doping Cyclists", and says "From Lance to Landis" got it right, but calls him "AMRSTRONG" [sic] in the headline.


BrandonVW notes Landis at the SM100, as does CityBikesMike.

SCAQ (Southern California Aquatics) wants hair tests, stiffer penalties, and deals for cooperation. It also offers this accurate description,

[D]isgraced Tour de France rider, Floyd Landis USA, who tested positive for artificially high testosterone levels after "winning" Le Tour.

But it's a nice picture -- cropped a little more loosely, we'd see the flag. Here's another one from the Flikr stream:

Landis taking back the Yellow Jersey. (Click for bigger)

Forums
We get plugged at r.b.rm, but Mike Jacoubowsky complains we referred to him as "one reader". He should be happy that we tell people at work to go to his store, Chain Reaction Bikes in Redwood City. We made the attempt to spell his name right here. If he adopts some much-needed spelling reform and goes as Mike Jacobs, we'll spell it out all the time.

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Friday Roundup

News
CyclingNews MB section says Floyd Landis will be riding in the Shenandoah 100 next weekend. CyclingNews also reports on the CONI appeal of the Petacchi case to the CAS.

ESPN reports that the IOC has stated it will ban doping violators from the Olympics, even if their suspensions has been served and ended, and Rogge is in favor of the IAAF's proposal to up bans to 4 years.

The Boulder Report makes note of people lying in public and getting caught in those lies in this time of "youtube" reality. He doesn't believe Disco ever had a sponsor, and how can Vino claim human rights violations? And so it goes.

In a later edition of the Boulder Report Joe Lindsey thinks that Pat McQuaid missed the boat on negotiations with the ASO about restructuring the pro tour . Lindsey thinks it's like an EBay transaction gone wrong. It's actually worse than that, since PayPal will not guarantee this deal.

The ProTour’s totally in good health, too – the last two teams into the game, Astana and Unibet, are just primed for another year of fun. Unibet’s bailing, and Astana, well, let’s just say that Andreas Kloeden might want to be looking at other opportunities. Disco’s out, the rest of the teams are fighting amongst themselves and the riders have about as much of a political voice as an opposition party in North Korea. Any deal must be stuck between the two principles, the UCI and the race organizers, who hate the whole thing.

Blogs
FloydLandis.com makes it official, Floyd will be at the Shenandoah 100 on September 2.

Rant feels that time has crawled to a standstill as we wait for the verdict in the Landis vs USADA hearings. The arbitration panel has been deliberating for three months now, and Rant goes over some of the possible scenarios causing what seemed to be the interminable delay.

Indiana Peloton posts an old picture of Floyd from last December displaying his feelings about, someone. He started the blog to help motivate his riding but feels maybe it's too hot to ride, or it could be one of the other reasons cited. He goes to routeslip.com to chart his rides, the ones he makes at any rate. We go to Bikely and map routes we'll never try.

Hasson at MySpace finds one of the Landis related fake headlines at fark.com funny.

City Bikes Mike is excited that Floyd Landis will be riding in the Shenandoah 100 on September 2 in Harrisonburg, VA.

Potholes and Roadapples also notes the Eastward trek, describes the wait as Landis "twisting in the wind", and gives us a plug.

VeloSwiss finished reading "Positively False" and found the "What's Fair is Clear" presentation by Dr. Arnie Baker to be compelling and worrisome for USADA. VS interviewed Dr. Baker in 2004 and posts a picture he took of Floyd in happier times.

Floyd Landis at the 2004 Tour de France in full Postal prologue regalia.

Dugard writes, with no Landis content:

America is one very fat country, with a morbid obesity epidemic, a firm grasp on mediocrity, a love affair with spectator sports instead of particpatory competition, and truly a NASCAR nation. (there's more: red state, non-reading, intelligence averse, and hardly the sort of sturdy pioneer stock that once founded the nation. The list of mediocrities is endless. In short, we have become Europe, without that firmly rooted sense of history).

In reaction, Stephen Colbert is warming up his interview question, "Why do you hate America?"

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Thursday Roundup

News
The Daily Lobo writes that sports is in the gutter, and gives lots of examples including Floyd Landis and the 2006 TdF. Something needs to be done and fast, like punishing the offenders with stronger sanctions and fines. Kobe Bryant's adultery is also cited. How exactly do you sanction that?

The VeloNews reports that Pat McQuaid is ready to talk about the structure of the pro tour, as long as the UCI runs it:

"The UCI is prepared to renegotiate the structure of the ProTour," McQuaid told the regional French newspaper Sud-Ouest. "What we won't do, however, is compromise as to the leadership of the UCI and the governance of cycling."

But Patric Clerc seems to feel differently about this issue:

"The piloting of cycling's reconstruction cannot be given to the UCI," Clerc said. "We will have to do it with all those who reject the current system in order to find our values again: riders, teams, sponsors, federations ... will all need to unite." That unity has been elusive since the creation of the ProTour in 2004.

Stay tuned. Things will likely get uglier before they get better.

Velonews has some other interesting articles, including an interview of a self-flagellating Joe Papp with a doctor about some of the medical problems he had caused by following the advice of the doping underground. We can be in total agreement with the message, "don't try this at home."

VN: How much blood did you lose into the hematoma?

JP: I believe the quantity of sludge that was removed surgically was close to 1200mL - is that possible for a horrible internal hematoma in the gluteus maximus?

VN: Yes it is. You basically lost one fourth of your blood volume into what should have been a trivial bruise because your blood was way too thin from medically unsupervised and incompetent abuse of anticoagulants. This would put most people into class 2 hypovolemic shock.

Velonews also passes on the word that yes, CONI is appealing the Petacchi case to CAS. This is because they disagreed with the Italian Cycling Federation's clearning him of his asthma inhaler overuse charge. Thisparticular scenario could not happen in the US, because USACycling turns its cases over to USADA at the beginning. However, WADA, and UCI and USADA itself could appeal to CAS should Landis win in his case at the initial stage.

And, as we know, CAS appeals are "de novo", which means the CAS panel considers the case from the very beginning, as if the earlier proceeding never took place. Completely new evidence and argument may be made, and the scope is not limited to errors the original panel may have made.

Yes, this is multiple jeopardy. It is this way to keep the Elbonian Frumble Federation from waving their hands and clearing their star with a nod and a wink with no recourse for the enforcers of fair sport. Most people believe this policy to be a Good Thing in the struggle against doping. It only seems troublesome when your honest federation clears your star of something, and is then hauled before a less friendly audience -- as, perhaps Petacchi is experiencing.

CyclingNews gives its take on the UCI/ProTour/ASO issues as well.

CyclingNews Letters are still talking about the folding of Team Disco, and one writer wants to know why it is taking so long for the Landis decision to come down. The world wonders, too.


The Daily Peloton blurbs the Univest Grand Prix to take place on September 8 in southeastern PA. DP also writes about the Cyclospotif 100K which is a cross between a timed recreational ride and a race where a "secret" guest rider will participate. Wonder who that could be, knowing that in 2006 Floyd Landis made an appearance at the Univest race at the request of John Eustice. With the Shenandoah race below in the same vicinity, we wouldn't be surprised.


Blogs
Triple Crankset writes about the recall of some Smith and Nephew hip resurfacing implants due to mislabeling. The wrong size may have been used in hip resurfacing surgeries, with some of the mislabeled devices being distributed in the US. One hopes, and assumes due to results at Leadville, that Floyd Landis' BHR device is not on the recall list.

Surface-Hippy, about hip resurfacing, is invoking Landis as a positive example, and it corrects misinformed details-- but doesn't talk about the recall.

Recovox News announces that Floyd Landis has been invited to and will be participating in the Shenandoah Mountain 100, the finale in the National Ultra Endurance (NUE) Series to be held on Labor Day weekend near Harrisonburg, Virginia. Landis accepted an invitation to race the Shenandoah Mountain 100 made by Scott Scudamore, who served as MC at a Floyd Fairness Fund event held in Northern Virginia in January:

"I am honored to be invited to be part of the Shenandoah Mountain 100 event. I look forward to racing on the challenging course they have put together since it includes the kind technical trail riding that first got me hooked on mountain bike racing," said 2006 Tour de France Champion Landis, who started his career growing up and racing his mountain bike throughout the mid-Atlantic.

PedalPushers Online gives a transcript of a Landis Book Tour appearance in Suffolk County on June 28 under the headline, "The Jury is Still Out." On the peloton knowing what was coming on Stage 17:

What happened was, we made a plan in the bus as you often do, and I didn't make it perfectly clear to everybody on the team that I didn't want anybody to know what was going on so a couple of the guys told their friends and well in the peloton next thing you know, everybody knows. So, rather than get upset about it, since everyone knew what I was going to do. I decided we'd just pretend that it was a joke. (laughter) They weren't very happy about that because I can tell you, I've been in that position where I'm working for someone else in the race, and when you get to the last mountain stage in the tour, the last thing you want to do is race up the first mountain in the stage as hard as you can. And I certainly didn't make any friends doing that. But my only choice at that point was to pretend that it just didn't matter because it was just going to be a wild gamble. But ordinarily it's not wise to tell everybody exactly what your plan is.

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Wednesday Roundup

News
The CyclingNews reports that the Kazakh cycling federation says that Andrey Kashechkin's blood has been tested and came back negative, but representatives from Astana has denied that it was the official B-sample from his positive test which was sent to an "independent French lab". Mysteries abound.

Aspen times reports 24 year-old Max Taam, who finished 4th behind Wiens, Landis and Kloser at Leadville, was a runner up at the Dillon Pro Criterium. Sounds like a good set of results for his first summer as a competitive cyclist!


Blogs
FloydLandis.com provides a triple entry with recaps on the Leadville 100 by Floyd himself, Dr. Brent Kay Floyd's physician, and Robbie Ventura Floyd's friend and coach. From Floyd's perspective the race was a great experience, with the exception of the results his wash out early on (see photo). He expresses gratitude to a number of folks who helped in this endeavor. From Dr. Kay's viewpoint of Leadville the BHR was a complete success and will be an example of what might be accomplished by a world class athlete after a hip resurfacing procedure. From Robbie Ventura comes perhaps the most interesting entry which emphasizes Floyd's preparation for the race and what that entailed:

I was able to do one test with him a week before the event on some smaller climbs near Vail and he did very well on his 20 minute power. It was about 90-95 percentage of where it was when he won the tour in 2006. He was able to do 380+ watts comfortably for a 27 minute climb and that was after a significant climb earlier in the day. Floyd did about 20 hours a week for three weeks with several big climbs each day. Floyd struggled the first 10 days but really turned the corner about 10 days before the race. He wanted to train harder and longer but I thought it better that he not overdo it since his longest week since the surgery was just over 17 hours. I was impressed with the quickness he came around and it just leads me to believe that he should be ready to compete at a very high level in a matter of months once we set some goals and lay out the rest of the year and next.

Rant ponders the possibility of an IAAF proposal to WADA to reestablish a 4 year ban for doping offenses replacing the current standard 2 year suspension. Rant feels this is overkill as most competitors suspended for 2 years never come back to top form anyway. It makes more sense to fix the system so it works more efficiently. Rant also links a song called Bike.


Science Fiction Twin thinks he's found out what Floyd Landis has been doing with his spare time, but the resemblance seems a bit of a stretch, and does anyone know if Floyd can even sing anyway?

PTomblin really likes the Environmental Chemistry blog posts about the Landis case.

University of Chicago Law Faculty/Randy Picker considers the limits of competition, citing Bonds and the meltdown of the last Tour, and the Landis case. (Also at the Chicago Tribune). He concludes pill-popping competition is unfair.

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Tuesday Roundup

News
The CyclingNews has no direct Landis content, but Bijarne Riis wonders why Rabobank would select Michael Rasmussen in the first place only to send him home from the TdF under such strange circumstances. Later, Alessandro Petacchi explains what it feels like to be accused of doping:

"I was considered doped for an incident in which doping does not even come into consideration. It was a medicine and I had a prescription, taken with good faith and transparency for documented allergies. And if the limits were passed the experts have demonstrated why." He was asked if he could have done it all over again. "It was not an error or even a lack of discretion but a necessity. You are not able to breathe, you think twice, maybe three times, then maybe take the medicine, hoping that the conditions don't happen that make you surpass the limits." He remarked on the bad publicity. "The magistrates know what they do, and do what they have to. The journalists, if they mistake an adjective, risk ruining your reputation. ... The suffering, physically and morally, leaves you with more grit, more resolution.

If Petacchi is correct, Floyd Landis will return as one gritty, resolute cyclist.


ESPN reports that the IAAF will lobby for even stronger doping sanctions at the Madrid WADA conference in November, but that the proposed 4 year, rather than 2 year, suspension for major doping offenses is likely to be defeated. It's never been clear to us why anyone thinks longer bans would be more effective. Why not a death sentence for the first offense? That'dl teach 'em.

VeloNews photo contest provides a good look at the damage visible at the Leadville finish:

Now that is a Raspberry, and a set of shorts that are headed for the trash. Click for the bigger gory view.
(Photo: Velonews/John Payne)

Blogs
Dugard runs down a number of endurance events, and is down on the Tour and Ironman triathlons.

Irrelevant: The Tour de France. At least as a competitive endeavor. Until they get the drug stuff fixed, we'll all be happy to watch, but there will always be this sense that it's all make believe.

Jamie at MySpace says that the Michael Vick horror show is not "Floyd Landis doping" but much worse. For the willful killing of another creature Vick should rot in jail.

Nahaul comments on getting noticed and in the process also mentions Floyd Landis' delayed justice and that in the majority of Europe you are guilty until proven innocent. Yeah, his troll worked.

Cycleiola read Positively False over a rainy weekend. While aware it's a one-sided version, he comes away thinking Landis is getting jobbed.

Hayley went to Leadville to crew for Dad, and got a Landis picture. It was dark in the AM. Her site also has some recipes for Strbuk to check out.

Fatty's pal who is really the unworthy who crashed out, sobs his story in "Close But No Cigar: Part VI, Dug's Tragedy"

Blog is Thy Name blurbs Fatty's participation this year at the Leadville 100 and even posts Fatty's portrait with Floyd Landis.

Velo Swiss is reading "Positively False" and something in the Landis story and the way it's written, and who did the ghost writing, doesn't ring completely true.

Kevin at MySpace has a grudge match between "doper" Michael Rasmussen from this year's TdF and Floyd Landis representing last year's race. Kevin has Rasmussen testing positive for doping at this year's Tour, which is wrong, and gives the match to Floyd for whatever reason.

Sons of Sam Malone digs into Michael Vick, and lists Landis in a rundown of athletes who "pissed their lives away" -- behind Hook Mitchell, Rae Carruth, Pacman Jones, Len Bias, Vick, and Pete Rose.

MOChassid notes the publication of "The Outcast" with no comment othere than it's compelling.

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Monday Roundup

News
The CyclingNews today reports that Pedro Delgado, 1988 winner of the TdF, is concerned that the very public fight against doping by WADA and the ASO is hurting the Grand Tours by alienating sponsors, and that the fight , though important, needs to be a quiet one:

"Nobody says that it is not necessary to fight against doping, but I do not believe it is the high-priority thing in this sport," he continued. Delgado declared that "doping must be fought without any publicity, because all of that hurts sponsorships."

Interesting comments, and seemingly against what most others feel is imperative for the sport of cycling to survive: transparency.

Scientific American "Ask the Experts" tries to address the "would one dose of T do anything" theory, and doesn't provide much illumination. It mistakenly says that 4:1 is considered "proof" of doping by WADA (it isn't), and takes the reported CIR result as being the final word with nary a peep about the controversy. They don't think a one time dose would have a physical affect, but speculate it might have had a psychological boost.

Blogs
UltraRob has uploaded more pictures from this year's Leadville 100 held on August 11, he says there will be more to come as well. There were at least two more riders wearing Smith and Nephew jerseys with numbers also in the 1200s.

You Can't Say That does a quote-without-comment from The Outcast:

“I’ve never cheated once in my career.”

Floyd Landis, New York Times, August 19, 2007.

Jacob Christensen links to The Outcast in an otherwise Scandanavian political blog.

Holtman wonders why in the world the verdict from the Landis arbitration hearings is taking so long. He read "The Outcast" and thinks it's hard to really know if Floyd is guilty or not, and what kind of person he is. Holtman allows that Floyd seems like a nice normal guy.

Pinch Flat News has links to three NYT articles published recently including "The Outcast", and they will turn to pumpkins in 7 says so read them now. But has cycling jumped the shark, or not?

The Kenny Report says that not only has there been a downgrade in Office Space but then on Saturday he did the covered bridge century ride in Lancaster Co. PA riding past Floyd Landis' parents Paul and Arlene and through Farmersville -- and the Landises were out front clanging a cowbell for the riders.

Bike World has been on vacation and goes over what may be old news for some.

Onefortypoinysix read "The Outcast" and feels Floyd Landis, and his sense of humor, has been stretched to the point of being brittle. Still the fairness issue is a problem with the athletes of more privileged nations and resources perhaps having an unfair advantage in competition.

PJ wonders how Alexander Vinokourov defends himself the way he does, and PJ also ponders just how TBV continues, day in and day out as we still see black smoke in the Landis arb ruling watch. We wonder that as well PJ, thanks for thinking of us, and the glass starts out full but winds up empty each day.

Bicycling Blog discusses the "pain train" that is the Leadville 100, and those lucky/talented enough to have ridden it all the way to the end.

The post-race comments were happier than this look. (photo: Rodale/Jeff Cricco - click for fullsize)

The Verbal Abuse I think but Have Trained Myself not to Speak takes on the Scientific American answer linked above, and thinks the "tesosterone for anger" theory is absurd. He also thinks that current rules seems to encourage sabotage-by-patch.

Forums
The Mt Diablo Challenge that Landis might ride on 7-Oct has a BBS too, and registration is open.

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Sunday Roundup

News
The Sequiter.com writes an op-ed piece on taking short cuts to get what one wants and how it's not just the domain of athletes and celebs but a societal problem. One of the points is that we should not feel shock but we should feel shame.

LancasterOnline.com provides information about an auction to be held to raise funds for Hospice of Lanaster. There will be many items up for bidding starting September 3 and some of these have been donated by athletes. One item was autographed by Lancaster native Floyd Landis, but no specifics were given as to what that item is.

The CyclingNews posts Alexander Vinokourov's opinion that his basic human rights have been violated by the anti doping agencies, and American Amber Neben has won the Route de France Feminine.

We missed CyclingNews' report on Leadville. It has more pix.

The New York Daily News in a multi-faceted article that runs the course from am anecdote about the late Phil Rizzuto, to the life long effects of cheating on an English sailor with reference to Floyd Landis.


Blogs
DailyKos, a liberal-leaning political blog, calls out "The Outcast" to its readers.

Pete Geniella recommends "The Outcast" mainly for its' great photographs by Larry Sultan.

Finger Food reads The Outcast, and thinks of Dean Moriarty, Jack Kerouac's fictional version of Neal Cassidy, street philosophy spouting exile of the road.

Mike's Imagination thinks the intelligence of Pro riders is overcredited, starting with Vino, and including Landis.

Rant comments on Unibet giving up, and on the "Hoist a Glass for Floyd" event spontaneously forming itself in comments here. For those in a timezone that is not already too late, we suggest 17:10 local time, the time of the Morzine finish, as the moment.

Creative Ingenuity feels bad for Floyd Landis after reading "The Outcast" and says Floyd is only human.

Sunken Treasure writes about "Floyd Rage" after reading "The Outcast" an apparently influential article about what it's like to go through the hell of uncertainty about one's fate.

Drasties points Euro readers to The Outcast, with quotes translated into Dutch.

FenderGal read The Outcast, and

[It] irritated me, and made me feel like I had just met with an old boyfriend, "Geez, what was I thinking?"

Mellow has Positively False in his to-read pile.

SkiBrent tells a good long Leadville Story with minor Landis content:

I heard shouts from ahead that said “RIDERS COMING”. Suddenly there was a surge of excitement among the bikers in front of me and behind me. This meant that the leaders of the race, who had probably reached the top 20 minutes ago, were now bombing back down. The ascending riders all moved to the right of the road and we were all collectively wondering who was leading. It didn’t take long to find out. Suddenly, there was Floyd Landis coming at us at about 40 mph. At first I didn’t see anyone behind him as I was looking way up the road. As he passed, however, I realized that the reason I didn’t see anyone behind him was because Dave Wiens was literally glued to Floyd’s rear wheel! The two of them were separated by about 2 feet and they were flying . . . I mean FLYING . . . and then they were quickly gone. I instantly recognized that that split-second fly-by may have been one of the coolest moments I’ve ever been a part of as a participant in sports. The 2006 Tour de France winner, who is racing in the same race as I, just blew past with the 4-time Leadville winning Mountain-Bike-Hall-of-Famer Dave Wiens right on his rear wheel. Alas the reverie died down quite fast when it dawned on me (and everyone around me) that we still probably had a good hour and 15 minutes before reaching the top while Landis and Wiens probably only had a few hours left in the whole race! What a buzz-kill.

Carbon Fork set a personal record for speed over the weekend at some fun events, and saw some Landis support by the Lancaster Bicycle Club. Go, girl!

Pommi thinks Landis might race TBV up Mt. Diablo on Oct 7th. We know nothing official, and there are no promises being made, and we'd be giving him a 10 minute head start if he shows (start groups). We are also at least two months behind in our training due to some stupid hearing we attended, and will generate even more excuses as time permits, starting with a simple, "We're not worthy."

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